By the 4th the MF will still be raging and it already has like 16 river crossings. made the mistake to go early one year and glad we had a rope to belay across with. Esmeralda should be perfect then. That's about usually when I go. Johnson had a bad washout a couple years ago you could get by on a bike but it was pretty sketchy. Up Way Creek is a push. All the way. So, you'd be finishing with a hike. Best place to find out about blow downs and the logging out process is Mikki's Cle Elum Off Road FB page. The throttle twisters are always chasing the snow line and doing a great job. Should be done by July but close.
Aaaaah. Miller. The always debated question. I've done it about every way you can and am sold on Art's OAB version either from the Iron Creek or Iron Bear side. Up to the 4 way at the ridge top and out and back from there. West Fork is amazing and not to be missed. Lots of options to do that too. OAB or a loop from Jolly or a point to point from Jolly to Cle Elum...

Only got a minute, so quickly:
- Mid fork has a brazillion creek crossings. See Borneo's note on that.
- Miller might be pretty hot and dry by then, it's usually better in June (although this year may be ready sooner)
- Esmerelda is a VERY worthy alternative.
- West Fork would be another route worth checking, but make sure it's cleared by then... last year it wasn't. LOTS of blow downs tend to accumulate up there.
- Ping me when we get closer to that date and I'll have more intel on the local score

Thanks for the heads up on all the water crossing on the Middle Fork Trail. I'll give Esmeralda a try this year and will probably stick to Miller Peak too. It sounds right up my ally based on everything I've read on the net.

Do Koppen as a hike first. As memory serves me it would be crazy steep for a bike ride. Short, steep and sweet. It was an old sheep driveway back in the day. Looks like you've gotten lots of great trip ideas from the usual suspects! Enjoy, -tabby

Couple other options are the out and backs on Stafford and Standup creeks. Look for a post from Slop here about a trip with EnduroDoug last year I think. The mix and match in the Teanaway is pretty crazy on just how much you want to ride too. Had some folks get a shuttle to the bottom of DeRoux where they went up and over into the Middle Fork and rode it all the way down to the West Fork CG. Awesome point to point there.

5/18 weekend update:
- Teanaway looking excellent, although parts of our beloved RRT are still 'interesting'.
- Some excellent squirrel has apparently cleared out quite a bit of upper RP. Maybe only one large tree left that you can go around? In any case, def. open for bizzniz.
- Taneum is melting out early. Moto crews working to get the Taneum ridge & Fishhook trails cleared for Memorial day, when I'm sure it will be packed w/ brappers going around in circles.... you've been warned.
We owe a LOT to Mikki's volunteer gas-powered chainsaw brigade. The guys that cleared out upper Taneum ridge counted 65 trees sawed out on Saturday alone. !!!

As noted above, a good way to know what is up is to get on the Kittitas ORV page on FB. The throttle twisters are all over logging stuff out right now and Mikki has released a map of what is going to be open this weekend. Verslo and I did a bunch of log outs in the 'way and I spent 3 other full days out there as well and there are still a few I left. But, it seems like way more downed trees this year all over.

Berg, wish I could join you. Hope you don't get too lost. If so, you can always call and describe the area around you and I'll get you back on track. I still have 3 boxes of Rice crackers to eat for you.

Carmichael, we lollygag and it is maybe 4.5 hours tops to do that loop and meander through Roslyn forest. Less the drop over the back. There is a really fun side trail to break up the Coal Mines worth noting. Take the first trail up to the right after the first road crossing (Alliance Road) and climb to a small ridge top with a fun descent back to the CM trail outside Roslyn.

Great! Thanks again for the info...I'll add the side trail off Coal Mines to the loop and probably not add any Teanaway trails this time. (Trying to keep it in the 3-4 hour range. Driving from Snoqualmie to Yakima in the morning for work delivery and hitting this on my way back...)

Sure.
If you go to Google earth, you can see the trail peeling up and to the right just after the road. Then go through town and climb up East Idaho to C st and go left. Take the old jeep road around the gate. It's quicker than going all the way through town over to Ewok or the 6th entrance or 2nd and Alaska. If you skip upper Rat Pac you can cut another 20 or so minutes off it. It's not what it used to be but is still fun.

6/1/14 update
Yesterday went solo from CE through Roslyn up over the ridge to the Teanaway, looped up lunch rocks & RRT, then pulled back over the ridge to hit Rat Pac with Berg501FE & better half. That's about 25 miles, maybe somewhere between 3k & 4k for vert. Teanaway sand is getting pretty blown out, especially on Borneo's 'The Big Sandy' climb back out. Rat Pack is rolling excellent. Overall everything is good, but things are drying out very early.

Oh, and found these tracks under lunch rocks. Anyone lose a small pet kitty up there a couple weeks ago? :P

I then got to play Beer Fairy for warmonkey & sidekick as they start figuring out the new climbing trail out of Roslyn. I won't steal his thunder, but... wow... more beer will certainly be delivered!

Did Taneum SF->NF on Tuesday. All clear and not blown out yet, rolling REALLY nice. Hopefully the rain we've had rolling through since might have kept down the dust a bit. Peaches and upper NF to Windy Pass are not clear yet and I could still see snow hanging in on the upper peaks, so the high stuff isn't quite ready yet.

I was hoping to lob off the Iron Bear OAB route on Miller this coming week, but motos are reporting there's still a large snow drift melting off along the way after the false summit. Since that one's hard enough already I think I'll wait...

Today I'm stuck in the office while warmonkey helps wrangle an all day trail building workshop for Evergreen in Roslyn. Super bummed I can't make it but VERY STOKED at what's going on up here. Buy that guy a beer when you get a chance, he's put in more behind-the-scenes effort than most will ever realize!

Thanks! Will be there today in spirit. Lots of good stuff going on and getting the TCF connected to the Roslyn one will be huge for the area. I may be down for an Iron Bear OAB to as far as we cam go next weekend if that works... Want to do a 4th of July/Drunk Bear/New climb descent too just to see if it is as good as it looked last weekend and on paper.